The first decade of the 21st century was a tumultuous one for country music. Piracy exploded, iPods ascended, and within a few years the genre had bid adieu to three of its biggest stars–Garth Brooks, who retired after the release of 2001’s Scarecrow (his final studio album); Shania Twain, who retreated after 2002’s Up!; and […]

Sell Outs: The first 20 shows of Garth Brooks‘ gig at the Wynn Las Vegas resort sold out in less than five hours and four of Taylor Swift‘s 2010 tour dates sold out in two minutes on Friday. Next month marks 10 years since the passing of Doug Sahm. The folks at Texas Music Matters […]

Jon Hager, who performed as one-half of The Hager Twins with his brother Jim in the original cast of Hee-Haw, passed away last week at the age of 67. Sam Lovullo, a producer of Hee-Haw and friend of the Hagers, said Jon had been in poor health and was depressed since Jim had died in […]

Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of three 8-year-old boys murdered in Crittenden County, Ark. in 1993, recently filed a complaint against Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines for statements posted to the band’s website in November of 2007 and comments she made last December. The complaint alleges Maines wrongfully made a “false and reckless claim that […]

Howard Stern announced on his show that Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines has agreed to sing a song at his upcoming wedding. This whole Sugarland release, it’s kind of a big deal, and most everyone seems to be excited about the new music: CMT’ Craig Shelburne talks to the duo about their songwriting, spirituality and […]

This past Saturday night Asleep at the Wheel played a gig at Antone’s where they were joined by Paul Shaffer. Anyway, we got onstage about 10:30 pm, after Carolyn Wonderland had wowed Paul with her opening set. Paul took us for a spin through some of his favorite tunes by Texas artists, like “Treat Her […]

This past Monday night I was fortunate enough to catch a Gary Allan show at Nutty Brown Cafe. His stage props appeared more death metal than country, but he was in fine form as he covered most of his newer songs — only traveling past Smoke Rings In The Dark for a handful of songs. […]

The Tennessean has a fairly in-depth article on Martina McBride talking about the possibility that she could be in the running for Entertainer of the Year at the CMA Awards this year. Joe Galante, chairman of Sony BMG Nashville, says that even if she won’t admit it, she wants to be in the Country Music […]